Tansen
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Miyan Tansen (1506–1589) is believed to have been the greatest North Indian musician of all time. He was instrumental in creating the classical style of North Indian music as we know it today, and has influenced it greatly up to the present day, both through his actions and his blood descendants. He was one of the Navaratnas (nine jewels) at the court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar.
Tansen was born in a Hindu family in Gwalior. His father, Mukund Misra, was a poet. The boy learned music from Haridas Swami, a legendary teacher of the time, and came to serve as court musician to King Ramachandra of Mewa and later to Emperor Akbar as one of the treasured Navaratnas (nine jewels) of the court. It was Akbar who gave him the title Miyan, and he is usually referred to today as Miyan Tansen.
Miyan Tansen accepted Islam at the hands of the great Sufi mystic and saint – Shaykh Muhammad Ghaus of Gwalior who was also his teacher and spiritual guide. He lies buried in the mausoleum complex of this great Shaykh of Gwalior.
As a musician, Tansen is said to have no equal (except perhaps for his guru and for a counterpart, Amir Khusro, centuries earlier), so good he is sometimes thought to have worked miracles through his singing, such as bringing the rains with raga Megh Malhar and starting fires with raga Deepak. He composed several ragas that have been cornerstones in the repertoire ever since, such as Darbari Kanada, Miyan ki Todi, Miyan ki Malhar, and Miyan ki Sarang. Almost every gharana (school) tries to trace its origin to him, though some try to go further back to Amir Khusro. However, it is likely that Tansen and his guru Swami Haridas really started the Dhrupad style of singing. His Sangeeta Sara and Rajmala are important documents on music.
Tansen had four sons and a daughter, Tanras Khan, Bilas Khan, Hamirsen, Suratsen and Saraswati Devi, all musicians; Bilas Khan created raga Bilaskhani Todi. In fact, Tansen's blood descendants held sway for hundreds of years as a most formidable force – the Senia gharana – on the North Indian music scene. The last of the line, Dr Dabir Khan, was born in 1905 and died in 1972. He was a dhrupadiya and a beenkar, working for Radio Calcutta. He came from Saraswati Devi's side of the family.
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[edit] Footnotes
↑ Tansen's birth name is a matter of some debate: Ramtannu, Tanna and Mukul have all been suggested, as well as a family name of Pande.
↑ Miyan Tansen's name is found among the names of the Mureeds (disciples) of the Shuttari Tariqat - a Sufi spiritual lineage founded by Shaykh Muhammad Ghaus of Gwalior. Tansen was one of the shaykh's greatest and well known disciples. Tansen lived during the times of Akbar, who is noted to be the most secular of the Muslim rulers of India. The burial of Tansen in his shaykhs' mausoleum is proof enough of his conversion to the path of his spiritual guide [especially during Akbar's era]. Also, only the closest and most famous disciples of a saint are allowed to be buried in his mausoleum. [Refer external links to Newspaper Articles]
↑ While Megh Malhar is still in the mainstream repertoire, Deepak has pretty much died out. There are three different variants, of the Bilawal, Poorvi and Khamaj thats, and it is not known which, if any, corresponds to the Deepak of Tansen's time. There is a popular myth that it disappeared because it could indeed bring fire, and so was simply too dangerous to sing.
↑ The Dagar family of dhrupad singers believe themselves to be the direct descendants of not Tansen but his guru, Haradas Swami.
↑ It is said that Bilas improvised the raga (it differs only in detail from his father's Todi), grief-stricken, at a wake, where Tansen's corpse moved one hand in approval of the new melody.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Wade, Bonnie C. (1998). Imaging Sound : An Ethnomusicological Study of Music, Art, and Culture in Mughal India. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-22-686840-0.
